Lacking In Basics

Walking out from behind a cubicle wall Kumi was drenched in sweat with an irritated and tired expression on her face.

Walking up to where Vaeril was doing his 'daily' exercises, she turned and fell back first onto the floor, resting her head against a nearby cubicle wall, taking deep breaths as she attempted to regain as much stamina as possible.

Sitting a few metres away from Vaeril who was doing one-handed pushups on top of cubicle walls near his own desk, Kumi yawned before speaking.

"Hey, hey. Parkour-chan."

Stopping mid-exercise, Vaeril looked towards Kumi as he jumped off the cubicle walls and lightly stretched.

"What does 'chan' mean?"

"No clue. I think I used to use it as an add-on for some nicknames?"

"A foreign accent type thing?"

"Yeah. But I think I used it wrong. Anyway, how much longer until. You know. Attempt 1?"

"Until your stamina is good enough to run, dash and dodge for at most an hour or two. Don't worry though Kumi, we have all the time in the world."

Vaeril, nicknamed Parkour, smiled as he sat across from Kumi.

"Yeah, you might have all the time in the world but I have to wake up sooner or later because I need to go to literal War."

Kumi responded as she lay down on the floor while looking at the ceiling.

"You mentioned that in your introduction, along with being trained by assassins and maids?"

" 'Prepared' but the meaning doesn't really change."

"Right. Care to talk about it as you catch your breath? We can go over some more exercises and strategy planning or talk about our properties too if you don't want to recall it."

"It's fine. It's not really 'traumatic' or anything compared to the other stuff I've been through."

"Being prepared to be sent off to war isn't traumatising? How old are you because your size doesn't do you any favours."

"Well, compared to 'that' place, the assassin training is actually mostly calm since I don't have to constantly worry over losing my life."

She said, mentioning the void where she had fought the calamities,

"But age-wise, I guess I have yet to reach 1?"

Kumi said with an awkward smile as she scratched her cheek.

"... Kumi. Lying isn't nice. I could have believed you if you said you were like 5 at the very least but come on now."

Vaeril rolled his eyes.

"Whatever you believe doesn't really bother me. Anyway, the main topic is assassination camp or whatever."

"Right. So what do you go through there?"

Vaeril asked in curiosity.

"Well, as of now all I've done is train my resistances, increase some properties through monster cores and some basic combat training."

"Not much actual assassin training then?"

"No, but I do some stuff on my own too. Can't disappoint since it may result in the end of my short life."

"Don't be so dark, Kid. I'm sure you'll go to a nice school after winning that 'war' you were talking about and live a happy life."

"Don't make me dread the future already, Old Man."

Vaeril held his stomach as being called an Old Man felt the same as being shanked.

"Ow. Old Man is a bit much. I prefer Parkour over it."

Vaeril said jokingly.

"So don't call me 'kid' then."

"Yeah, yeah. Understood, Kumi. Your appearance just throws me off a bit."

"So does my mannerisms I guess, a quirky combination, isn't it?"

"Moreso, Unique."

Vaeril let out a soft chuckle.

"So have you caught your breath?"

He then asked while cracking his neck.

"Some time ago already yeah, but I'm more interested in the talk you mentioned about properties. We haven't really gone over those yet."

"Right. But it is closely related to one's privacy so I didn't think of doing it, if you're fine with it then it's a different matter since we'll have a better understanding of each other's abilities. To some extent."

"Yeah, I wouldn't really like to be told to just jump up a cliff or whatever awaits me in here."

"There aren't any cliffs at least."

Vaeril said with a smile. Kumi's way of dealing with situations, joking around and her child-like appearance made him readapt to socializing rather fast, though that fact escaped Vaeril.

"I can start then. Right now, I'm Level 88. My Properties right now are Vigour D, Mana E, Strength D-, Agility D+, Mind E, Endurance D and Arcane F+.

I have some Titles myself that greatly help with my physical properties, everything relating to mana and the like is sort of low."

He said while scratching the back of his head in slight embarrassment.

"Aren't they a little on the low side?"

"Yeah, my Mana and Mind are on the low side compared to my physical stats but they're only slightly below average compared to normal people my rank."

"No, I mean... wait. What property ranks did you start off with again?"

"Sorry?"

"I mean born with. What rank properties were you born with?"

"Oh, I was lucky enough to be born with mostly G Rank properties with a few even getting to G+."

"Ah, that explains it."

"Explains what?"

"My sense of Property Ranks seems to be skewed."

"How so?"

"I was born with 'slightly' higher rank properties than regular people I guess."

"Oh, so same as me then? Or were more of your stats in G+ rank?"

"No, none of them were in G+. Everything was in the F+ Rank."

"Wait. Sorry? Kumi. You're joking now."

"Well-"

"Because you know that all beings, All Beings are born with properties that are locked from reaching higher than G+ Rank so that they are born safely. Right?"

"Ha. Ha. Ha. Yes?"

The dry laugh really hit it home as Vaeril facepalmed calmly.

"So what Property Ranks do you have?"

He asked without removing his hand.

"Umm. Vigour E-, Mana F+, Agility E+, Mind F+, Endurance E and Arcane E-."

"..."

"Sorry?"

Vaeril sighed as he removed his hand from his face and looked at Kumi while slowly shaking his head.

"No. No. It's fine. It's good even. I won't have to worry as much about keeping an eye on you. It's... My sense of normalcy is just getting skewed."

"What more do you expect from a military weapon?"

"True, I guess. We don't really have to talk about potential or skills since knowing potential won't give us anything and only we ourselves know our skills best."

"Uhuh."

"So. Back to training then."

Vaeril said as he got up with a 'Hup' before stretching and cracking his back slightly.

"Guess so."

Kumi muttered as she also stood up.

"How much longer do you reckon? These exercises you've given me are quite draining."

"Well now that I know about your monstrous property values, I think we should just continue honing the basics that I taught you for a while. Until you can go through 3 or 4 sets without much trouble."

"Rather demanding, don't you think Parkour."

"We are doing this so you don't get instantly squashed or stabbed a few minutes after starting. Dying isn't very pleasurable, believe me.

And we can both do better if I don't have to oversee your every move."

"Yeah, yeah. You've mentioned that."

"Then go get to it, or no coffee later."

"I can do without."

Kumi said with a wry smile as she started speed walking to her side of the office space to continue the simple movement and stamina training she needed to get through the difficult parts of this trial.

Watching the girl speed walk away, Vaeril had a soft smile as he thought about his own past for a moment before shaking his head and rubbing his chin.

"Considering what I know about the exit..."

He muttered to himself before letting out a soft sigh.

"This might get problematic..."

Taking his shirt that was hanging from one of the cubicle walls, he put it back on along with his tie as he walked and sat behind his desk, resting his body.

Looking up at the white ceiling that he had long gotten sick of, Vaeril was deep in thought.

...

Meanwhile, on Kumi's side.

"I wish there was a shower around here."

She muttered as she stretched her legs before dropping and doing the splits.

Touching her toes with her hands while doing the splits, she stood up a moment later and lightly stretched her body.

"Alright"

She told herself as she hopped in place for a few short seconds and loosened up her body.

During the basic body training Kumi had done, her Skills {Training} and {Stamina Loss Resistance} had both gained some levels, though that is not what she was aiming for.

After having a good few conversations with Vaeril, she had learned some tidbits of information about this place.

Though Vaeril himself does it mostly unconsciously and with the help of the Skill he trained up, he almost instantly noticed changes in the natural mana around him. This is what helps him find the 'doors' that lead to the next area.

Though Kumi knew what mana felt like and how to absorb it through cores, she had yet to understand the method to 'sense' it.

Even in this generated void, there was mana that constantly flowed through the air and surroundings. Mitsuna, while training her stamina and flexibility was also training her reaction time and mana sensitivity as she spread all her senses as far as she could and attempted to feel the periotic changes in mana that generate the hidden 'doors'.

It was... difficult for her to say the least. Her understanding of mana and on 'sensing' outside her body and in the atmosphere were beginner-level at best.

Vaeril had told Kumi that knowing how to sense the mana changes around her without looking at it would be very important for her in this situation and in the future.

He had also said that he didn't know of any 'Skill' for sensing the details of mana around oneself, calling something like that a rare and unique skill reserved for high-ranking wizards and mages.

Unlike a Skill, it was more like a learnable ability like reading or writing. Just a few levels of difficulty above that.

Through a casual comment Vaeril had made, Kumi learned that basically all individuals at Master Rank and above have this 'ability' and those that don't simply lack the talent, potential or are too focused on the physical side of things.

So, with all that information, Kumi needed to learn this 'ability' and was progressing rather well, she was a step or two away from fully understanding the principles of it.

Suddenly turning her head and opening her eyes, she looked in the direction where she sensed mana swirling in a strange way as if a small black hole was draining the ambient mana around it.

Focusing on the sensation and feeling, the swirl disappeared a moment later as Kumi again sent out her senses.

A few seconds later, she could feel it behind her and instantly turned to face it.

"I've got it down to a certain degree."

She muttered as she swiped the sweat from her brow, tired after pushing her senses and her focus to the limit for an extended period.

Sitting down, she started resting as she closed her eyes and took a quick nap.